Lay-away your endless cardboard!

Materials: 5 Gorm 1’x3′ shelves, hand saw, mallet, workbench vise, electric screw driver, 14 drywall screws, 4 ‘dowel’ screws, 2 wall anchor screws, wood glue

Description: Shelf Your Recyclable Cardboard… with this quick, fun project: Storage and binding station for your pantry, mud room, or garage.

Assembly time was about 2 hours:

1) Set aside (intact) 4 of the 5 Gorm 1’x3′ shelves.

2) Using a workbench vise (or a work table and a clamp) with a hand saw, cut off 1 of the 3 slats that make up a 1’x3′ Gorm shelf section. Do this as follows.. this the only challenging part of this project!:
a)clamp down the shelf so that a 1′ long edge is on horizontal to you and on top, and the 3′ sides are vertical. b) Refer to the attached pictures (“Gorm 1ftx3ft shelf.jpg” and “Cardboard recycler_Side view.jpg”)

You will be cutting the L-shaped molded edge piece and not the slat itself: Locate the first ‘gap’ between the slat you are removing and the middle slat. c) now angle the hand saw blade so that you are cutting the L-shaped molded edge from against the slat you are ‘keeping’ outward to up against the middle slat. d) Turn over and clamp down the 1’x3′ Gorm shelf section and do the same cut to the other L-shaped molded edge on the other side — but make sure to have the angle of the saw blade and the cut itself match the direction of the cut done in able step c. That done.. the ‘difficult’ part of the project is complete!

3) Take the second of the 5 whole 1’x3′ Gorm shelf sections and clamp this down to the workbench.

4) Fit 1-slat section removed in steps 1)a-d above on the non-angled edge against the whole Gorm shelf section (again, refer to the picture “Cardboard recycler_Side view.jpg”) and, using a drywall screw and electric screw driver, join the two pieces together at one corner (outer edges flush, making an L-shape).

5) Set a drywall screw on the other corner, matching above step 4.

6) Take the third of the 5 whole 1’x3′ Gorm shelf sections and clamp this down to the workbench.

7) Take assembly produced in steps 4 and 5 and using a drywall screw and electric screw driver, fit the **angled edge** of the molded L-shaped edging produced in step 1)c above against the clamped third Gorm shelf section and join the two pieces together at one corner (outer edges flush, now making an overall C-shape). Now refer to the bottom of the picture “Cardboard recycler_When Empty -Top view.jpg”.. step 7 has now produced the bottom half of the cardboard recycling shelf!

8) Clamp down the entire structure assembled in step 7.

9) Using the ‘dowel’ screws (have two pointed ends, no head just threaded end-to-end) OR use 1/8″ wooden dowels, twist these into all four IKEA pre-drilled holes in the Gorm L-shaped molded edging on the assembly.

10) Apply some wood glue to the edges where the dowels now stick out from.

11) Take the remaining whole 1’x3′ Gorm shelf sections (four and five or five) and align the holes with the dowels. Fit the edges of the Gorm shelf sections together to make two 1′ x 3′ sections on both sides of the assembly (refer again to the picture, “Cardboard recycler_When Empty -Top view.jpg”).

12) With a mallet lightly tap the above fitted edges together. Wipe off any excess wood glue from the surfaces.

13) Cut free a discarded slat section from step 1, above so you have only the slat itself and no the L-shaped molded edging.

14) Saw this slat in two pieces.

15) Turn the entire C-shaped assembly from step 12 on its side, resting it on the floor.

16) Lay 1/2 piece of the slat accross (perpendicular) the middle of the ‘C’ or ‘V’ shape of the assembly. The slat should cover the doweled joint set in step 12 and overlay in a ‘butt joint’ (or L-shape) with two 1/2″ upright slats on the other side. See this assembly in picture “Cardboard recycler_Side view.jpg”.

17) Clap dow the free slats, aligning as described in the above step.
Pre-drill screw holes and set 8 drywall screws accurately aligned to sink into the thick of the wood on the slat and the edges of the upright two 1/2″ slats on the assembly.

18) Optional: Add one long wood screw to one side of the structure and hang a spool of twine (to bind the caerdboard with).

19) The cardboard recycling shelf is complete! Now use the anchor screws at the top corners of the structure to hang it conveniently to a wall in a pantry, mudroom or garage (use the remaining 2 drywall screws to anchor the middle or bottom of the assembly to the wall).

20) To use the cardboard recycler, pull the twine accross the top of the bin from front to back and just break down your boxes to flatten them and file these into the wide (3′ x 2′ opening at the top, see picture Cardboard recycler_In Use – Top view), resting all the cardboard contained in the structure over the twine. When a suffiecient bundle of cardboard collects, just cut off enough twine and tie the buddle.. set aside ..and begin a new bundle of cardboard.

~ Don Deutsch, Minneapolis